Eye on the Sky

Sitting high in the center dome of the F.W. Olin Physical Sciences Building is the 0.8-meter (32-inch) Ortega Telescope, one of the largest research telescopes in the Southeast. Faculty and students train this eye on the sky to see black holes whose masses can reach billions of times that of the sun, globular clusters, whirlpool galaxies and hot gassy nebulae. Researchers also study binary and multiple star systems, the decline of stellar activity and more. The telescope is equipped with a large-format CCD imaging system and a spectrograph, so you can see what the stars are actually made of. A sophisticated imaging camera—opening the big eye even wider— is now being tested on the Ortega Telescope. The technology can help astronomers spot very faint objects near to very bright objects—planets around other stars, for example. On clear evenings, stargazers venture onto the roof, first to see the amazing sunset, then to peer through the night sky at the stars through small, high-quality telescopes. What an awesome sight.

As a university that has evolved alongside NASA’s space program, Florida Tech has always been on the forefront of exciting change. Each semester, sustainability becomes a larger component of life at Florida Tech.

The Cross Cultural Management Summit, sponsored by the Institute for Cross Cultural Management, is a structured forum for global professionals to work together to solve real-world cross cultural management problems using the very best in evidence-based practice.

Biomedical engineering is an exciting program that combines engineering with medicine and biology to improve healthcare. The microscopy center has lots of cool microscopes that allow students to see and learn about things that could change the medical field.

Our biomedical engineering students get to use cool laboratory equipment. One of the coolest is the Instron ElectroPuls E3000. It’s a mechanical testing instrument capable of performing a wide range of static and dynamic tests, making it very useful for biomechanics research.

The X-Culture project allows business students an opportunity to experience the challenges of working on a global virtual team (GVT). Each GVT consists of six students and each student is from a different country and university.

Aquaculture is just one of seven interest areas biological sciences majors may choose. What better place to study it than at a university that is ten minutes from a river and just 15 minutes from the ocean?

Did you know Florida is a lightning capital of the world? When it comes to the latest in lightning, national media like the Discovery Channel look to Florida Tech. Lightning researchers here first discovered X-rays from lightning.

Sitting high in the center dome of the F.W. Olin Physical Sciences Building is the 0.8-meter (32-inch) Ortega Telescope, one of the largest research telescopes in the Southeast.

It's a blast for the Florida Tech student rocket society in the annual Hybrid Rocket Competition. The society's high altitude team took first place in the 2011 competition, beating nine other teams.

Who would've guessed? Concrete floats! Civil engineering students prove that and more when they join in designing, building and testing a concrete canoe each year.

School work can be a morning on the water or a day at the beach for Department of Marine and Environmental Systems students. That's where many try out their design projects, literally getting their feet wet in the real world of engineering.

First comes the design, then the construction and before you know it Mini Baja design team members are getting down and dirty. They're bouncing over rugged terrain, jumping over boulders and flying over jumps at test tracks.

"It feels real," say aviation students when they're seated in the cockpit of an FIT Aviation flight simulator. You might be in a twin-engine trainer with 180-degree wrap-around screen.

Want to build a house? Twenty-five construction management and civil engineering students helped build one for ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition, from foundation to move-in in only seven days, with the help of Lifestyle Homes.

The Chevy ruled at Panther Plaza when the Nathan M. Bisk College of Business marketing class team set out to fulfill a class assignment to promote Chevy vehicles in the Chevrolet Campus Promotions Program.

The two-week course, "Pacific Coastal Environments" on the rugged Oregon coast, gives students used to exploring warm Florida waters a welcome change.

Goldfish dumb? No way, say hands-on behavior analysis graduate students who train them and treat them in Florida Tech’s aquatic operant conditioning lab, where goldfish learn behaviors through reinforcement.